Hunter Cossum

Uhh I think U is confused 

​

 Materials:

• Graphic image of a caveman scratching his head

• Cover-up critter

• Whiteboard

• Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual boxes for each student

• Letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic letters for the board: c, u, b, l, n, g, r, s, t, h, k, a, o, i, m, p, j)

• List of spelling words on poster board: cub, nut, bed, sick, moth, jump, smack, clung, crust,

• Decodable text: Bud the Sub by Sheila Cushman

  • Cushman, Sheila. Bud the Sub. Educational Insights: Carson, CA, 1990.

• Worksheet for assessment:

  • https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics/short-u-abc_UUUUU.pdf

• Primary paper

 

Procedures:

1. “In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we are going to learn about short vowel u. The letter u is always confused and likes to say /u/. Whenever we see the letter ‘u’ I want us to think about a caveman scratching his head saying uhhhhh” (hold up graphic picture).

2.”Before we learn about the spelling of /u/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /u/ in words, I hear u say /u/, my mouth opens and I push air from my throat (make vocal gesture for /u/.) I’ll show you first: fuzz. I heard the letter u saying /u/ and I felt my mouth open and air come from my throat (make vocal gesture). Now let’s see if we hear u talking in any of these words. If you do hear u saying /u/ scratch your head like the caveman. Sad…Right we don’t hear u do we... Suuun… Good we do hear u saying /u/…Okay last one Buuuud…. Great! Lets move on to spelling /u/.”

3. “What if I want to spell the word jump? ‘Sally likes to jump rope ’ When we jump have to get our feet off the ground (demonstrate). Lets spell jump in letterboxes, first lets figure out how many phonemes we have in the word lets stretch it out and count together: /j/u//m/ /p/ I need 4 boxes. I heard that /u/ just before the /m/ so I’m going to put a u in the 2nd box. The word starts with /j/, that’s easy; I need a j. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /j//u//m//p/. I know the next box is u says /u/. I think I heard /m/ after /u/so I’ll put an m right after the u. (Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /j//u//m//p/.) The missing sound is/p/, so that must be a p.”

4. “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for cub. ‘The cub went to see his momma bear.’ A cub is a baby bear. What should go in the first box for the word cub? (Respond to children’s answers). What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. (Observe progress.) You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box. Then listen for /u/. Here’s the word: clung, ‘I clung onto my candy bar so I wouldn’t drop it.’ Clung (Follow the previous format and allow children to spell the remaining words: nut, bed, sick, moth, hunk, crust).

5. “Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I am going demonstrate a difficult word. (Have shrunk written on the board, cover all letters except ‘u’) /u/ (now uncover onset and point to the sounds) /sh//r//u/ (uncover the ending) /sh//r//u//n//k/ shrunk. Now we are going to say the rest of the words together.  (Have children read words in unison adding pseudo words huz & lim,. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.)

6. “You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling for u says /u/. Now I am going to pair you up and read Bud the Sub. Bud the Sub is about a sub named Bud. His boss sends him off, but then a tug hits some ice. The sub sees that there is a man and his pup on board. You will have to read to find out what happens to the man, the pup and the tug! (Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads the book aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.)

7. “Before we finish up with our lesson about u saying /u/, I want you to practice writing the letter ‘u’, remember we for our little ‘u’ (demonstrate while talking) we start at the middle line curve it to hit the bottom and then go back to the middle line and for our big ‘U’ (demonstrate while talking) we start at the top curve it to the bottom and go all the way back up again. Now you practice writing 4 lower case u’s and 4 upper case u’s.

8. Assessment:  Give each student the assessment worksheet for short u to assess their individual knowledge of the vowel.  They will circle the /u/ words from the list and write them in alphabetical order. While students work on the worksheet, I will call students up one at a time to assess their reading of Bud the Sub and their understanding of u = /u/ in print and spoken language. I will be using a running record.

 

Reference:

Book: Cushman, Sheila. Bud the Sub. Educational Insights: Carson, CA, 1990.

​

Picture: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/vowels/caveman.jpg

​

Design: Murphree, Mellissa. “Ehh, I can’t hear you!” http://mjm0065.wixsite.com/melissamurphree/beginning-reading

​

Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics/short-u-abc_UUUUU.pdf 

​

Click here to return to Entries Index​